Big-5 hospitals fail in patient experience evaluation

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Chung-Ang University Hospital stood out in the first “Patient Evaluation of Medical Service Experience” survey. The so-called big-five hospitals scored rather low, and the Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH), in particular, ranked the lowest in most sections.

The results of the patient experience evaluation released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA) on Thursday showed results far from the public expectations. The reputation accompanying big-five hospitals didn’t work in the survey conducted on 14,970 adults hospitalized at general hospitals with 500 beds or more for at least a day.

Chung-Ang University Hospital scored the highest in five categories related to hospitalization experience -- nurse/doctor service, medication, treatment procedure, hospital environment, and protection of patient rights -- and also on overall evaluation.

Chung-Ang University Hospital was at the top among the surveyed 92 institutions in all categories except for one concerning hospital environment.

Its nurse service received 93.75 points, doctor service 89.9 points, medication and treatment procedure 90.14 points, protection of patients’ rights 88.42 points and the overall evaluation 91.06 points. Even in the hospital environment category which was the only one the hospital failed to rank first place, Chung-Ang University Hospital scored 90.22 points and came in ninth.

SNUH records lowest in 5 categories

In contrast, patients were harsh on SNUH. The highest score SNUH received among the total of six categories was the nurse service, with 90.2 points. It was higher than the average point of 88.73 points, but SNUH still ranked 28th place.

Questionnaires in which SNUH received above-average points, other than the nursing service, was the one regarding the overall hospitalization experience and on whether patients will recommend the hospital to others. SNUH received 83.48 points in the overall evaluation category which was only 0.47 points higher than the total average of 83.01 points.

Worse yet, SNUH scored the lowest in doctor service. It ranked at the 87th place among 92 institutions, with 77.14 points in doctor service. The category on doctor service inquires on the doctors’ attitudes toward patients such as their respect, courtesy and ability to listen attentively, as well as whether there were enough opportunities for the patients to meet doctors and if enough information was provided on rounding hours.

SNUH ranked 83th with 77.93 points on the hospital environment category, which asked whether the hospital was clean and safe enough for patients.

SNUH also received the lowest points in the medication and treatment procedure and the protection of patients’ rights categories. The hospital ranked 71th with 80.78 points in the evaluation category, which asked patients whether they were informed on the side-effects or on the grounds of the medication or treatments they undertook.

For the protection of patients’ rights category which questioned if the patients were able to participate in the treatment-decision process or to file complaints, SNUH was at 70th place with 79.99 points. The only hospital among the big-five that ranked below SNUH was Samsung Medical Center which stood at 73rd place with 79.92 points.

Big-5 hospital almost ‘fails’ in doctor service

It was in doctor service that the big-five hospitals failed to maintain their reputations. Among the subcategories of the doctor service, the five largest hospitals received the low scores in subcategories on whether patients had enough opportunity to meet doctors (74.6 points) and whether enough information was provided on rounding hours (77 points).

None of the five major hospitals made it to the upper middle ranks in the doctor service category. Asan Medical Center scored 82.67 points, the highest among the big five, but remained 44th in the ranking. The Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital ranked 49th with 82.43 points, Samsung Medical Center 64th with 80.9 points and Severance Hospital 79th with 79.6 points, not much higher than SNUH which was rated 87th.

The hospitals received relatively good grades in the hospital environment category. Excluding SNUH, the rest of the big-five hospitals ranked high in the hospital environment category. The Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital came in first with 92.56 points, Severance Hospital ranked 4th with 91.29 points, Samsung Medical Center 11th place with 89.83 points and Asan Medical Center 22th with 88.52 points.

Three among the five major hospitals were listed within the top-10 in the overall evaluation category. The Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital finished off fourth with 88.49 points, Samsung Medical Center came in sixth place with 88.285 points, Asan Medical Center 10th with 87.58 points and Severance Hospital 23th with 85.6 points. SNUH ranked 42nd.

The Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital received 83.59 points and ranked 15th in the category inquiring on the protection of the patients’ rights, in which SNUH and Samsung Medical Center scored among the lowest. Asan Medical Center ranked 30th with 81.94 points and Severance Hospital 56th with 80.8 points.